lancerusfandomcom-20200213-history
Trials of the Wolfeater: Rebirth, Part 2
Part 1 Part 3 Part 2 Getting into Blackmist was easier than expected. A few pairs of old shackles and one of Lin’s guards made only two words necessary to get past the guards, “Sinthaster’s Friends”. Amazing how little they suspected or at least cared about our arrival they didn’t even detach an escort to watch where we went when we entered the gates. The plan was pretty simple on paper: move in ahead of the main force, scout the fortress, assassinate Renly, meet with the main force, clear out the survivors that don’t surrender. In my experience plans rarely went off without a hitch. We were immediately thrown for a loop; the room directly through the front gate of the castle was an odd collection of hallways, five to be exact, laid out parallel to each other seemingly running to the same spot. We checked all five to make sure but they all definitely led to one small hallway directly through the middlemost option. This design would have made no sense if it weren't for the five exceptionally large lit brazier and our recently acquired knowledge of the wraith realm. We could only hope that Renly didn't have connections outside this world, those gateways could mean anything. The hallway opened up into a courtyard about 20 feet wide by 40 feet long, there was a large chasm stretching the width of the courtyard with two 10 foot wide bridges spanning the chasm parallel to each other about five feet apart. Across the chasm there was an enormous gate still drawn shut, we turned to one of the small archways on the left side of the courtyard that ran from the wall until the beginning of the chasm and led to an enclosed staircase rising to an overlooking balcony over the same room the massive door from the courtyard led to. Lining the walls were priceless artifacts aging back to the beginnings of the Darkmoon Saints. “It's about time we invited Sinthaster to the party” I said casually glancing over at Aurilus, but he was already halfway through drawing the symbol on the ground. You never really get used to watching someone enter the real world through the wraith realm. The way the fire flares up, much larger than the candle could ever have hoped to produce. The way the shapes of a person slowly push through the flame like a skin and the ashen flesh regaining the color of humanity as it made its way out of the fire. As Sinthaster appeared before us we readied our weapons and armor for the coming fight. “So this is Blackmist? It’s colder than I remember.” Sinthaster said with a smirk forming on his lips. “I imagine it would be colder than the inside of your candle Wolfeater.” Aurilus quipped in his usual drab tone. “Now now, don’t fight. There will be plenty of time for that during the celebration when we’re victorious.” I stated calmly. Keirina stepped forward to join, her shield seemingly a giant door against her small frame. "Don't expect this to be easy, we need to be realistic and weigh our options. Whatever we do, though, let's make it quick; I'm freezing." "We can't really be careful and quick, Keirina," I said. "Pick one." She groaned as the wind bit into her shins. "Fine then, quick. Hack them to pieces so I can get out of this dreadful wind." Aurilus remained silent. You could tell that him and the First legion Darkmoon were nervous and a little annoyed. It mostly had to do with the fact that Sinthaster was taking very little risk in this all. While he would be marching with the third legion in the main assault when our job was done, he was only here as a phantom for arguably the most dangerous mission and would miss the initial assault if our timing went off perfectly. I had no reason to worry, these smash and grabs were what I excelled at. Breaking into a heavily defended fortress and fighting absurd odds were what I made my name with in the Hand. Yet something felt off... it had the hairs on my neck standing up, but all I could do was suppress the feeling and move forward. As if sensing my unease Sinthaster patted me on the back and walked past me towards the artifact on the pedestal immediately next to us. Sitting upon it was Felfoe, the arming sword of Wer’Le the Demon Hunter. Though most of her armament was lost in the battle she waged against the Eyeless One (including her iconic War Trident), her energy could still be felt in this place. Though both Wer’Le and her enemy vanished some centuries ago, the sword of her name was recovered. “Wow, you guys even summoned me so I wouldn’t have to take two steps to reach my destination. I applaud you all.” Sinthaster said slowly clapping his hands together quietly, further fueling the fire glowing behind Aurilus’ eyes. I don’t know if he always riled him up before fights like this, but having seen Aurilus’ skill with a bow he is not the type of person I would regularly anger. “It’s but one of two artifacts we need, and I don’t see the other anywhere,” Lin’s lieutenant remarked looking around the vast room. The missing artifact was called the Shroud of Arler. Arler Galiron (ancestor to Renly) was the “first Darkmoon ever”, by many people’s accounts. One of his cloaks, known simply as the Shroud of Arler, is said to imbue nearby Darkmoon and warriors of the Seven with the strength of the First Men. Whether it was true or not would be discovered today. “It’s safe to assume Renly knew we were coming, in which case my sovereigns are on it being in the throne room. So, who are we to keep him waiting?” Sinthaster called out as he turned towards the archway across the hall. It was at this moment I realised what was wrong. Where were the guards? I understand them being scarce, this was meant to be a sneak attack after all, but the fact that we hadn’t seen a single patrol aside from the two men guarding the gates was more than a little bit fishy. It was at that moment Sinthaster passed through the archway into the throne room that a large fire suddenly burst into life on the lower floor of the artifacts chamber while both of the massive doorways between it and the throne room and it and the courtyard burst open. We rushed down the stairs into the throne room. “What exactly is it we we’re doing again?” I yelled to Lins’ lieutenant as I posted up to the threats I knew were gonna come from the fire. “Protecting us.” he said casually as he ran past me to the artifact thrown unceremoniously on the floor of the throne room. “If we hold both these artifacts we should be able to pierce that shield surrounding Renly.” he called out from across the room, it was only then I noticed the man standing in front of the throne shrouded in what can only be described as an aura of death, so severe it was visible. He was clad in black robes with dark purple sashes tied around his waist and a blackened steel breastplate emblazoned with the crescent moon of the Darkmoon. In his hand he held a massive bow, easily eight feet in length made of old knotted wood painted black, the bow emitted a presence almost as evil as he did. There was a quiver resting up against the throne filled with arrows that were almost four feet in length painted all black with dark purple fletchings. “Renly, I take it.” I said turning to Sinthaster, who had suddenly turned very somber. He only nodded slightly in response and readied his shield and sword. From the direction of the fire and also the front gate 13 third legion soldiers suddenly came into view. As soon as they were within earshot one of them yelled “The rest are tied up with the judges but it shouldn-” He was cut off as an arrow suddenly launched toward him. The truly disturbing part is he managed to see the shot and raise his shield but the massive arrow pierced through it like paper and lodged itself in his chest completely stopping his momentum and even tossing him back a few feet. I turned to look back at Renly just in time to see him lower his bow and spit out the words “Die, traitors.”The remaining dozen third legion soldiers met up with us right as the first of the wraith’s stepped out of the fire that had burst forth in the artifact hall, this was gonna be a long fight. Nine minutes. In total the battle only lasted nine minutes yet it felt like an eternity. Between dodging the arrows from our back and the neverending flow of first legion wraiths we were kept fighting at full capacity for the full battle, and then for it to end so anticlimactically. We didn’t even get to strike Renly down. We finished channeling them and pulled the two artifacts together, the fog that had surrounded Renly was forced inside of him causing him to wither away as his body collapsed into a pile of ash. We didn’t even have time to go check on the corpse, the flow of soldiers from the wraith gate didn’t stop so we had to push our way through them to run to the courtyard and hopefully meet up with Lin. And so we continued fighting until we cut a hole large enough to make a break through and ran out to the courtyard We saw the third legion emerge from the other side of the courtyard about the same time we did, we ran towards each other and crossed at the bridge the line opening up to let us through. I turned to see the sprinting wraiths of the first legion hit against the shield wall of the third sending many soldiers from both sides plummeting into the abyss-like chasm in the center of the courtyard. Tonight, we would be tested. Category:World Lore